Finishing nail



March 23, 1943. C. a CROOKS FINISHING NAIL Filed July 5, 1941 high laborcosts.

able. Iiflthe clearanc Yunnan. sT Tss PATENT; OFFICE 2,314,431 rn'nsnmaNAIL Charles E.- Crooks,

nails, Inc., Chicago,

Illinois This invention relates to improvements in nails and moreparticularly concerns finishing nails such as are adapted for securingmoldings or finishing strips, or the like, in place.

7, Conventional finishing nails are formed with small round heads ofonlyslightly larger diameterthan the shanks oi the nails, so that theheads may be readily countersunk and without the formationof undulylarge countersink holes in the surface of the nailed object. Because ofthis relatively small diameter of the finishing nails heads, these nailscuring insulating or wallboard in place, and their hold upon the usuallysoft, thin wood of moldor finishing strips is insecure. This is pariestwith respect to molding-strips g, as in window ticularly mani which aresubject to weatherin screens, doors, and the like, where rusting of anddecay or disintegration diately surrounding the nails and nail heads alltoo frequently causes failure of the hold of the nails upon the strips.

Another disadvantage of the, conventionalv round headed finishing nailsis that they must be applied either by hand or by relativelycomplicated, cumbersome and generally unsatisfactory stationary nailingmachines with resultant In any event counterslnking involves a. separatemanual operation. In order to gain the advantage of a simple mathe finising. nails of the wood imme tempts have been made, with very indiflerentresults, however, to use staples for securing moldlng strips and thelike in place. Where the staples are heavy enough and large enough to'beefiective, the relatively large exposed webs or crowns of the staples orthe long slot-like coun-' tersink holes made thereby, are quiteobjectione between the legs of the sufil staples is reduced length, thenarrow sections of to an acceptable woodstraddled by qualities anddurability combined with the adaptciently to limit the crowns areimpractical for se-.

Chicago, 111., assignmto Spot 111., a corporation of 'especially whencount 941, Serial No. 401,083

(CL-Zii-Ml' v V ability for simple and convenient high speed,

accurate machine nailing. One object of my inv driven and countersunk bymeans of a simple stapler-type of driving machine and which has animproved head construction that is not only small enough to present aneat and acceptable appearance at thesuriace oi the nailed object,

ersunk, but also enters into such thorough, non-shearing engagement withthenailed object as to prevent pulling therethrough even afterextensiveweathering.

' chine method of driving the fasteners, some atthe legs of the drivenstaples and compressed by countersinking of the staples,

the defects both as and the accompanying drawing,

Another object of my invention is to provide a finishing nail having animproved head that will enter into a-novel interlocking relationshipwith the secured member. By this the finishing nail is adapted for usesto which prior finishing nails were unsuited, such as in securing inplace figrous. insulating panels or wallboard and the li e.

Still another. object of the invention is to provide' a finishingnailthat may be supplied in adhered or" chine.

A further object of the invention is to provide an improved finishingnail of the foregoing general character which maybe produced'iromreadily available, low cost material by simple, high speed quantityproduction methods of' manuiacture.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from thefollowing description I in which similar characters of referenceindicate similar parts throughoutthe several views.

Referring to the drawing, of which there is one sheet, I Fig 1 is anactual size fragmentary perspec tive view of a section of window screenshowing the molding strip secured in place on the frame by means of myimproved finishing nail;

Fig. 2 is a more or less schematic vertical sectional view through thedriver end of-a, driving machine with which my improved finishing nailis adapted to be applied'in use; 7

Fig. 3 is a transverse sectional view on an enlarged scale takensubstantially along line 3-3 oi Fig.1;

Fig. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view on an enlarged scale takensubstantially along line 4-4 of Fig.1; 7

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a series of the finishing nails adheredtogether in "stick form ention is to provide a practical, reliablefinishing nail which can be 1 stick form for use in a driving ma- Fig. 6is a perspective view of one of my finishing nails on an enlarged scale;

Fig. 7 is a. perspective view of a modified form of the finishing nail;v

Fig. 8 is a perspective view of another modified form of the finishingnail; and

Fig. 9 is a-perspective view of a further modified form of the finishingnail.

By way of illustration of an important use for which my finishing'nail,generallyidentified by the numeral I5, is especially Well adapted, Ihave shown the same in fastening association with a wooden w dow or'door screen structure. Such a structure'gincludes aLframe [6 which isprovided with a rabbet gro of a screen wire panel l8. The screen wiremay be stretched by roller pressing a portion of its 1 forlreceiving themargin margin into'ia channel shaped groove I8 at the longitudinaljcenter of thei engaged face of the groove 'll. A thin finishing ormolding strip 20 is secured within the groove Hover the margin of thescreen by ,means of the nails -l spotted atsuitable'intervalsl'throughout the length of the strip.

According to my invention the finished nail I5 is of a novelconstruction adapting it to be driven into the members to be securedtogether along the supporting bar 23 successively into driving positionwithin a guideway 24 at the front of the machine. Here a driving blade25 is located to be driven against the head end of the nail within theguideway to drive the nail out of the lower end of the guideway and intothe members to be secured together. One of the nails 'l5 is shown infull line withinthe guideway 24 ready to bedriven, and in dot-dashoutline in the fully driven-in position within the molding strip 20 andthe frame l6. The driving blade 25 may be adjusted to countersink thehead of the nail flush with the surface of the molding strip or as deepwithin the surface as desired.

In order to facilitate handling the nails for loading into the magazine22 of the driving machine, a substantial number is preferably securedtogether in sidewise abutment by means of lacquer or. other suitableadhesive to form a stick of convenient length, substantially as shown inFig. 5.

To facilitate the process of manufacturing the nails I5 and assemblingthem in the stick form, the heads of the nails should have means forengaging a guide bar by which thenails are maintained in alignment untilthey are adhered together by the adhesive, and which is substantiallythe counterpart of the guide bar 23 of the nailing machine. To this end,each of the nails IS in addition to having a. relatively long nail shank21, is also formed with a small hook shaped head 28 which may have asubstantially flat laterally extending crown and carries a short leg 29extending in. the same direction as the shank 21.

The ends of both the shank 2'! and the leg 29 are formed withpenetrating points 30 and 3|, re-

spectively, by chamfering of each of their ends from respectivelyopposite sides to a central substantially knife edge. The edges of thepoints 30 and 3| preferably extend from side to side of the nail. Thecentral or diametrical location of the point edges relative to the shankand leg extremities has been found of advantage in driving the nailsstraight.

The length of the head 28 and also the length of the leg 29 are keptwithin as short limits as practicable. In a commercial form of the nailwhich has been found quite satisfactory for attaching screen moldings,the head of the hall has been made between about one-eighth andthree-sixteenths of an inch in length, outside dimensioh, with the leg28 of no greater and preferably shorter length, in a nail approximatelyseven-eighths of an inch long. The cross-sectional dimensions of theshank and head are preferably uniform throughout the nail, and thuspermit full side-by-side contact of the nails IS in the stickrelationship.

A preferred material for making the nail 15 comprises a flattened steelwire. This may have fairly fiat longitudinal faces at the inner andouter faces of the nail, and slightly rounded side edges. The roundnessof the side edges limits the engagement, and hence the adhesiveconnection,

between the edges of the nails to reasonably narrow lines so thatalthough the nails may be handled in stick form without coming apart,they will readily detach from the stick in the driving machine under theimpact of the driving blade 25.

An advantage of having the head 28 as short as possible, is that onlyunobjectionably small countersink holes will be made in the face of themolding strip 20 and the small bit of m tal of the crown of the headwhich may possibly be exposed will not detract from the neat, finishedappearance of the molding strip.

By having the leg 29 of the nail head as short as possible, a definitelyadvantageous result is attained in the effectiveness with which the nailwill hold the relatively thin and fragile molding strip 20 in place.Thus, by'reference to Fig. 4, it will be seen that even though the head28 of the nail is countersunk below the surface of the molding strip 20,the short leg 29, acting as 8. prong, penetrates only a short distanceinto the molding strip. Thereby, a substantial portion of the body ofthe strip 20 intervenes between the point 3| and the rear face of thestrip. This is of importance when it is considered that the grain ofsuch a strip generally run longitudinally, and for convenience inapplication the nails l5 are usually'driven with the length of the head28 extending lengthwise of the strip. Hence there is a tendency of thesection of wood 32 (Fig. 4) severed from the grain of the strip betweenthe shank 28 and the prong 29 to shear away upon being compacted incountersinking the nail, However, since thematerial of the section 32 isbacked up by the substantial, unpunctur'ed grain portion of the moldingstrip which intervenes between the point 3| of the prong and ,the rearface of the molding strip, the section 32 actually forms an interlockinganchorage for the hcok-shaped head structure of the nail.

As a result of the interlocking relationship of the section 32 of themolding strip and the hookhead 28, the nail I 5 is thoroughly anchorednot only by the frictional hold upon the long shank 21 driven into theframe l6, but also by the frictional hold upon the portion of the shank21 that passes through the molding stripand upon the peaked as indicatedat 34.

penetrating prong 29, and by the'interlocking .unaterial at oppositesides the puncture plane portion 32 ofthe strip. This, takentogetherwith the fact that the nail can be made of adequate weight to withstandlong weathering, as-

sures that the nail will hold the fastened members togetherindefinitely. 1

For some purposes it may be desirable to have even less of the metal ofthe crown of the hookshaped nail head liable to show at the surface oithe nailed article than is the case with the relatively flat crown ofthe head 28. The're may also, of. course, be other'considerations, suchas the preferred or most effective shapeof the nail head for. engagementby the. end of the driving blade of the nailing machine under certainconthat the partially severed material will afford little, if any,resistance to plug-out where said members are subjected to a relativeseparating force, a finishing nail having a relatively ion-g shankextending entirely through -said thinner member and anchored deeply inthe base memhen-said ,nail having a head of substantially hook ditions,which would dictate the particular shape 7.

01 the crown of the nail. In one modified form, the head of the nail maybe form-ed on a radius as indicated at 33 in Fig. 7. In another form, as

shown in Fig. 8, the head maybe substantially In the modified form ofFig. 9, the head may be formed at an oblique .angle as indicated at 35more or less in the nature of a barb. In each of the forms of Figs. 7, 8and 9, it will be evident that after the nail has been countersunk intothe surface of the nailed article only a bare point of the highestportion or crown of 'the nail head will be near the surface of thearticle.

From the foregoing it will be apparent that the present inventionprovides'a finishing nail which is of a unique construction thatpractically prevents the head of the nail from pulling through the head,said intervening portion of thethinshape including a point penetratingonly partially through said thinner member, and a substantial unpiercedportion of said thinner member inter- 7 vening between the end of saidpoint and the inner face of said thinner member, said head being inengaging relation to that material of the thinner member which ispartially severed by the shank and point and lies within the hook of nermember forming a solid retaining bridge across the inner end of the holeformed by said point and being integral with the adjoining material ofthe body including said partially'severed material to reeni'orcesaidpartially severed material for effecting a sound interlockingrelationship with said hook-shaped head strongly resisting pulling ofthe head through or loose from the thinner member.

the nailed article. This is accomplished without compromising theeffective proportions or weight of the material from which the nail ismade. Thus, my novel finishing nail may be used effectively to secure.articles such asinsulating panels, wallboards, and the like, for whichthe round-headed finishing nails have been wholly impractical because ofthe liability of pulling through the oftentimes rather softfibrousmaterial of such objects. Furthermore, the nail is peculiarlywell adapted to be supplied in adhered or stick form for use in adriving machine, an accomplishment which has not heretofore beenpossible with finishing nails.

While I have illustrated and described certain preferred embodiments ofmy invention, it is to be understood that I do not thereby intend tolimit my invention to the specific forms disclosed, but contemplate thatmany modifications and alternative constructions may be made withoutdeparting from the scope and spirit of my invention.

I claim as my invention: I

1. In combination with a relatively thick base member and a relativelythinner member to be nailed together, the thinner member being of.

- relatively fragile character to the extent that 2. In combination withapair oi juxtaposed. members, one of which is a relatively thinsofttextured wooden molding strip in which the grain runs longitudinallyand the other of which is a substantially thicker nailing base, afinishing nail having a shank at, least twice as long as the thicknessof the molding strip and extending entirely through the molding stripand deep into the nail-. ing base, an integral hook-shaped head on theouter end of said shank having the same crosssectional proportions asthe shank and extendim; only a short distance laterally from the shankin the same direction as the grain runs in the molding strip, the headbeing countersunk within the outer surface of the. molding'strip, thehead intervening solid layer being integral with and reenforcing thematerial of the strip that lies 1 arate it from the base and draw itaway from terminating in a pointed short prong spaced from said shank tosuch a limited distance that, considering the diameter of the stock fromwhich the nail is made, if said prong were projected parallel with theshank to such a distance that in the countersunk condition of the headsuch prong were to extend entirely through the molding strip, thematerial between the prong and hook would be detached and tend to bedisplaced as a slug in the countersinking of the head, said prongactually being substantially shorter than the thickness 01' the moldingstrip and wholly embedded therein, and a substantial unpunctured solidlayer of the wood of the molding strip intervening between the point ofthe prong and the base-engaging face of the molding strip, such withinthe book of the nail against plug-out in response to a pull on the striptending to septhe nail.

CHARLES E.'CROOKS.

